In honor of the long weekend and my fervent hope that we can celebrate the titular labor by not doing any — the eight of you fair readers, and most certainly myself — I thought I’d drop in with some recommendations to hopefully incentivize that activity and soundtrack your lazy days. And since this week was Bandcamp Friday thought I’d offer some of the highlights from the horde of treasures I managed to stash away — thirty albums and two hundred bucks worth by the time I was all done! (Don’t worry, we won’t do anywhere close to that many — remember: it’s a no work weekend!)
First up comes last year’s album from Josiah and the Bonnevilles, the aptly named 2022. These guys were the product of another Spotify spillover, coming on after listening to one album or another recently (I think it was either Isakov’s or Oliver Hazard’s new ones, which are fair comparisons) and I was immediately drawn to their hooky melodies. The backstory on the band is its founder, lead singer and songwriter Josiah Leming, dropped out of high school to tour the country, living out of his car while doing gigs, and eventually was noticed nationally when he became a contestant on American Idol. He didn’t make the cut, but was given a record deal anyway (heck of a consolation prize!), however when his debut failed to make waves (2010’s Come on Kid) the label dropped him.
Undeterred Leming moved back to his native Tennessee, added guitarist Stephen Johnson and bassist/percussionist Josh Nyback as the aforementioned Bonnevilles, and eventually shifted their sound to a mix of spare, simple folk and unobtrusive country. It works really well — Leming’s pinched, nasal delivery has a touch of early Dylan to it and the band’s songs toggle effectively between those two genres, highlighting the allures of both without succumbing to some of their cringier elements (particularly those of the latter). The album is a mix of singles they released throughout the year, some originals and some choice covers that appear both here and on the again aptly titled Country Covers album they released around the same time. (Their Taylor Swift cover of “Anti-Hero” appears on both, alongside covers of tracks from Bon Iver, Kate Bush, and Glass Animals on the latter.)
Two of my favorites come one a piece from those aforementioned categories — the first is an original, one that lies more in that traditional country vein, both lyrically and tonally. It’s another song about lovin’ n’ losin’ and that duo’s perennial pal alcohol, this time remembering when the narrator used to fall in love without it. It’s a solid, forlorn little ballad that’ll have you singing along in sympathetic misery (just as the best country tunes always do). The second comes from the cover category and similar to Swift’s appears on both the band’s albums last year. It’s a cover of Justin Bieber, of all people, and their really nice version of his song “Ghost.” Existential questions around what my liking this song means aside (am I a Belieber now? Do I need to register with the local police or something?) it’s a really nice song, whether you know its origins or not. Check both of them out here:
Next comes a track from recent #fridayfreshness champ Duff Thompson and his 2020 debut album Haywire. Thompson won the competition on the backs of the first single from his upcoming sophomore album Shadow People (due out Oct 27) and this was a compelling enough listen to drive me down the rabbit hole to his other material, which amounts to this album at this point. Based on the little I can find it seems Thompson began his musical career as a producer, only starting to perform as a solo act in 2016, but those early outings encouraged him to keep writing original material, which culminated in a really nice debut a few years later. On it he draws from some of the best elements of his native New Orleans, with his music being described as “a swampy blend of folk, pop, and garage rock.”
You clearly get hits of all those flavors on the album’s brisk 10 track, half hour duration and its brevity definitely leaves you wanting more — a positive sign for the upcoming October release. Thompson’s voice reminds me a bit of Richard Swift’s and Hamilton Leithauser’s and his channeling of those guys’ warmth and (at times beleaguered) charisma carries you through what often sounds like a relic of another era, as his weathered voice and production give the songs a vintage feel far beyond their modern origins. Two of my favorites straddle the folk/pop and garage rock divides mentioned earlier and serve as bookends to the album — the former yielding the dusty opening gem “Sleight of Hand” and the latter the rollicking, foot stomping finale “The Long Haul.” Give the pair a listen here:
Last entry from the highlight reel is the 2019 debut from Utah quartet The Backseat Lovers, When we Were Friends. I found these guys thanks to a recommendation from one of the Sunbeams, Doc, who amazingly doesn’t even remember making said suggestion. (When I told him I was really digging the rec he made he was stupefied — didn’t recognize the song, denied that it was him, and still has no recollection even when I showed him the conversation to jog his memory (Public Service Announcement — drinking on the job is a dangerous pastime, kids, and not something you should EVER do — even if you only work at a tech startup and not as a paramedic or pilot or something…)) His amnesia actually makes finding these guys seem even more fortuitous — like the cosmos used him to channel this information to me for whatever reason — and I’m grateful for their intervention as I’ve really enjoyed listening to them the past few months.
The band formed five years ago when lead singer/guitarist Joshua Harmon and guitarist Jonas Swanson met while waiting in line for an open mic night in their hometown Provo, Utah. The pair hit it off, decided to form a proper band rather than continue their solo efforts, and added drummer Juice Welch and bassist KJ Ward to the mix shortly thereafter. The four began practicing and writing their own material, winning a local battle of the bands later that year before self-releasing their debut EP Elevator Days by year’s end. They continued writing and recording, performing in and around Utah before self-releasing their aforementioned full length the following year. The early stuff reminds me a lot of Catfish and the Bottlemen and the Districts — full throated, high energy anthems with big bleeding hearts — while their more recent material (last year’s Waiting to Spill) is a little more subdued and experimental, giving off more of a Radiohead vibe at times.
It’s these early songs that are most irresistible to me and two of my current faves are “Kilby Girl” and “Sinking Ship.” The former is pure Catfish — just a huge, straightforward track about a 19 year old with a fake ID and a nose ring with all the necessary angst that you’d imagine. The latter gives off more of a Districts vibe with its slowly building tension, erupting with an absolutely epic ending that is great on album, but even more spectacular live. (I was really surprised at how good the band is live — the albums are undeniably solid and catchy, but I was floored at how much they open up when I caught them at Lolla recently and the songs become these enormous, leggy things. Super impressive…) Both are worth repeated listens — give em a spin here:
We’ll close with a handful that didn’t make the cut for the Bandcamp massacre, as they were uneven and/or slightly disappointing affairs, but still have a few tracks worth listening to. In no particular order:
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- The Country Westerns’ sophomore album Forgive the City doesn’t pack the punch of their solid debut, finding the trio stuck in a somewhat monotonous Replacements-style rock mode, but I really liked this one, which is more in line with their earlier material — check out “Speaking Ill of the Blues:”
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- Similarly disappointing was Noel Gallagher’s latest from his High Flying Birds enterprise, Council Skies, and while a lot of the big, sweeping cinematic feel is gone from their last album, there’s still a few that capture that compelling vibe — give “Pretty Boy” a listen here:”
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- Up third is the latest from Mapache, Swinging Stars. This one may be less monochromatic than the previous two albums in this list, but it lacks a cohesive sense of self, which is its downfall — there’s songs in Spanish, instrumentals, country songs, folks songs, songs that sound like the Beatles. It jumps around too much for its own good, which takes away from some strong songs on their own — my current fave is “People Please:”
- And last but not least is a track from Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver’s) solo album Hazeltons, which just got released on the Spots. It apparently comes from 2006 with the lead/title track serving as the genesis of the sound he would perfect on the amazing For Emma, Forever Ago. Other tracks are more in line with his more eclectic (some might say annoying) later material, but there are a handful of quiet, contemplative songs on here worth a listen. None moreso than that opening salvo, though — check out “Hazelton” here:
That’s it for now, my friends…
–BS
